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Maternity, paternity and adoption

Request for information – FOI13366

Thank you for your e-mail of 28 March 2013, requesting information from Ordnance Survey in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. Ordnance Survey does hold some of the information you have requested and we respond to each of your questions as follows:

1) With respect to the Agency’s terms and conditions of employment of the current policy in relation to public and privilege holidays that fall during a period of maternity, paternity or adoption leave.

We do not have a policy on these issues, but we do make reference to them in our staff handbook.

Under our duty to provide advice and assistance (Section 16 of the FOIA) we detail extracts relating to relevant sections of our current staff handbook, to which we refer in such matters:

Maternity leaveContinuation of non pay-related benefits during maternity leave.You will continue to accrue annual leave and public/privilege holidays during the OML and AML periods of maternity leave whether these are paid or unpaid.

Paternity leaveThis information is not held. The reason this is not held is because there is no reference to public and privilege days in the current paternity section of the staff handbook.

Adoption leaveWhat happens to non-pay related benefits during adoption leave?You will continue to accrue annual leave during OAL and AAL periods whether these periods are paid or unpaid. You are entitled to 28 days per year, inclusive of public holidays as a statutory minimum. If you are off work for the full 52 weeks and your annual leave allowance is less than the 30 days maximum, you may be entitled to additional time off to make it up to the statutory minimum. This will be calculated on your return to work.

2) Any prior policy pertaining to public and privilege holidays that fall during a period of maternity, paternity or adoption leave.

As previously explained, we do not have a policy on these matters, but we can again make reference to historic sections of our staff handbook:

MaternityWe have located the following information from the April 2008 staff handbook:

Key contractual provisionsThe following are the key provisions under the terms of your contract of employment with Ordnance Survey.If you are pregnant and your expected week of child birth is on or after 1st April 2007, you:

Have the right to a minimum of 52 weeks statutory maternity leave (SML). SML means ordinary maternity leave (OML) and additional maternity leave (AML). You have the right to return to work after this leave. During this leave you will continue to benefit from all normal contractual terms and conditions of employment you would have been entitled to if you were not absent, apart from salary.

PaternityThis information is not held. The reason this is not held is because there is no reference to public and or privilege days in previous paternity sections of the staff handbook.

AdoptionWe have located information relating to leave and privilege holidays from the April 2009 version of the staff handbook:

Continuation of non-pay related benefits during adoption leave.If your date of adoption starts on or after 5 October 2008, you will continue to accrue annual leave and public/privilege holidays during AOL and AAL periods whether this is paid or unpaid.

3) The date the previous policy was amended to the current policy.

Once again, we have used our Staff handbook as the point of reference for this information, and can advise that sections were previously amended to the current versions as follows:

Adoption section: May 2010Maternity section: April 2011Paternity section: November 2011

Please note, that these sections may have been updated for a variety of reasons.

4) Any internal correspondence and documents relating to an amendment to this policy - in particular any correspondence providing an explanation for changing policy (e.g. Bulletin 42 issued by the Cabinet Office in September 2011 http://bit.ly/163hSMt)

From undertaking a search of our Electronic Records Management (ERM) system, we have found a copy of the Cabinet Office Guidance mentioned in your point 4, although we have not found any other documentation or correspondence, in our records relating to this, therefore this information is not held.

Public interestAs the requested information has been supplied or is not held by Ordnance Survey we have determined that in all the circumstances of this case the Public interest consideration (section 17 FOIA) is not applicable in this instance.

Internal reviewYour enquiry has been processed according to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. If you are unhappy with our response, you may request an internal review with our FOI Internal Review Officer, by contacting them as follows:

Please include the reference number above. You may request an internal review where you believe Ordnance Survey has:

Failed to respond to your request within the time limits (normally 20 working days)

Failed to tell you whether or not we hold the information

Failed to provide the information you have requested

Failed to explain the reasons for refusing a request

Failed to correctly apply an exemption or exception

The FOI Internal Review Officer will not have been involved in the original decision. They will conduct an independent internal review and will inform you of the outcome of the review normally within 20 working days, but exceptionally within 40 working days, in line with the Information Commissioner’s guidance.

The FOI Internal Review Officer will either: uphold the original decision, provide an additional explanation of the exemption/s applied or release further information, if it is considered appropriate to do so.

Appeal to Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)If, following the outcome of the internal review you remain unhappy with our response, you may raise an appeal with the Information Commissioner’s Office at: